How to play gladiator efficiently?

[jameseoakes]

You mentioned facing monsters away from allies... I did get a comment about this with the Ifrit trial... So there we go. Maybe that's what I've been missing, because prior to that, I never did it.

Thanks.

A lot of bosses have attacks that cleave and will hit other players. As a general rule turning the boss so it faces away from the group is normally your best option.

[Canadane]

You mentioned facing monsters away from allies... I did get a comment about this with the Ifrit trial... So there we go. Maybe that's what I've been missing, because prior to that, I never did it.

Thanks.

For Ifrit specifically you want him facing away from the group, with your back to the wall. This way he can't push you out of his range and everyone else is good to use their positionals.
Remember many melee classes need to know where the back and flanks of a target is going to be, and nobody wants the front facing them. Rarely do you see a frontal positional attack and it just avoids front facing cleaves.

The positioning of bosses and generally all mobs is one of the more important tank responsibilities. The others are not dying, and the super advanced tactic of not being slow.

Otherwise, you sound like you're doing dungeons with gladiator appropriately. Shield Lob into a couple flashes and then whatever combos you may have learned unless it's just some Total Eclipse spam because there's so many.
Gladiator is very simple to use until you reach Paladin levels, where it honestly doesn't get much more complicated but at least you have Shield and Sword oath. The guy asking a Gladiator to use an Oath should be chuckled at and taught when tanks learn their skills.

[BillyKaplan]

Total Eclipse

Isn't that a level 41 skill? They should be a PLD about that time already then.

Others covered most of what needs to be said, but what I usually do at the lower levels is Shield Lob, then Flash 2-3 times depending on how big a difference in level and gear there is between you and your party. Combo skills wise, alternate your targets and save your finisher and highest agro generator for the target the dps are focusing down, if such exist. To support AoE agro, and to at least keep from losing things to the healer if you have several enemies, I'd recommend using Flash again every other combo unless you see they're really ripping off of you, then use it more often.

[Canadane]

Isn't that a level 41 skill? They should be a PLD about that time already then.

46 in fact!
But nice catch, my bad.

[Rongway]

You mentioned facing monsters away from allies... I did get a comment about this with the Ifrit trial...

Another thing that many tanks learn for the first time during the Ifrit fight: if there are adds during a boss fight, many times it's not the tank's job to deal with them. In Ifrit in particular, the tank should not attack the nail because the DDs will get caught by Ifrit's fire breath.

Also, if the healer Rescues you to a different position because you're cleaving the party, please don't go back to what you were doing that was cleaving the party.

[stardrifter]

theres more to tanking then just knowing your rotation, a big part is knowing the monsters/bosses and their abilities/mechanics. Mainly boss fights, you need to know positioning, timing, and what cooldowns to use and when. The role requires alot more strategy and knowledge than the others. It sounds like you have yet to reach level 30 and unlock Paladin so you don't have to worry about alot of that yet, but turning the bosses away from group is generally just a good habit to get into, as well as tanking by the edge of the arena most times, not all.

[Lilseph]

Here, my boy.

[Lambdafish]

Here, my boy.

Very informative, if not a little outdated

[BluexBird]

If someone tells you you're a bad tank, ask them why. If they refuse to explain, just ignore them and continue with you the dungeon.

Here are some quick guidelines just to help you know you're on the right track:

1. Everything has to be hitting you. If for some reason, something starts attacking someone else, your top priority has to be to get it back. Use Provoke for that. I'd like to point out here that even if the DPS has something attacking them, there's no reason to panic since any single monster does LAUGHABLE damage even to non-tanks, so if they're complaining about this in particular, just tell them to stop whining.

2. Make sure you turn things around, especially during boss fights. Some monsters have cleave attacks. If you have to dodge an attack, go back to the spot you were in after you dodge. This isn't really something that tends to be complained about, but I've seen it go through some people's heads.

3. At later levels (60+), if you are comfortable, you might want to start picking up more than one group of monsters, to speed up the dungeon. If you do this, make sure you use skills that reduce the damage you take.

Reason #3 is often what a lot of people complain about. They've seen other tanks pull 2-3 packs before, and want you to do it too. But just because you don't do it, doesn't mean you're a bad tank. Especially not at dungeons below level 60.

Ultimately though, if you've got 2 and 3 covered, it doesn't really matter what you do. In time, you will learn new things and get better, so just ignore anything that isn't constructive criticism.

[Nihility]

gladiator and marauder are kind of semi-crippled before they get their job upgrades. It would definitely help to know the nature of the complaints though

Something to help with aggro for aoe is the enemy list will have little green/yellow/red bubbles next to there names showing how securely you have aggro.
The most important things i can think of for just generic tank stuff is
1) try to identify the ranged mobs and pull the melee ones to them, and try to arrange yourself so the monsters are making a fan pattern in front of you instead of a circle around you. It gets easier the more you do it
2) the moves that show a telegraph on the ground generally still hurt tanks pretty badly so strafing out of them and back in once they disappear will minimize damage you take and minimize monsters moving around as well
3) there is not much of it at low level but try to wear as much "gladiator/marauder" gear as you can rather than "disciple of war" it makes a big difference

other than that, try to keep in mind a lot of people have been doing the same low level dungeons almost daily for years and have grown a bit jaded so the ability to ignore people that are being jerks just because they're spoiled will do you well.
You should also have access to the novice training grounds near aleport since that's right next to the first dungeon, get yourself some useful training and pretty great for it's level gear and one of the most useful rings in the entire game from it